Victorian House Renovation in Bloomingdale, DC
We.are.done. And by we, I mean our contractors. Sergey and I still have quite a few items to cross off the list (mainly painting and stripping – will it ever end?!). But back to the topic at hand — there was no dramatic build up, no sense that this was all going to end. Just an email on Wednesday night notifying that the following day was going to be final day.… Read the rest
We are inching along here. I had made a list of everything that needs to be caulked in the kitchen – its actually quite lengthy. I guess I would rather do that than have contractors do less or more. The other big items are baseboards and the last molding pieces to frame the door to the basement. Those should look much better with a coat or two of paint.
But the biggest item over the last week has been plaster.… Read the rest
Dudes – the cornice is up. All around the kitchen ceiling. We are like a hair from being done in the kitchen!!! Do people hug their contractors? Cause I want to (maybe its my thanksgiving mood).
*Ignore the cheetah like moldings – that’s the wood filler covering the nails.
From the pictures its quite obvious that the cornice and the ceiling panels are not entirely flush. it still looks quite good, so if it stays like this I would be ok with it.… Read the rest
So we were really really hoping to be done with the renovation in time for Sergey’s birthday. We had even planned a get together for the occasion. you know convenient – celebrate birthday and the end of renovation projects. Well, we weren’t done – despite our contractors’ promises. But its very close – enough to give our guests a pretty good idea of what it is supposed to be.
All of the cabinet pulls (but two – above the fridge) are in.… Read the rest
Well the distance between the three recessed lights by the cabinets is fixed.
But the fourth light somehow ended up wildly off the mark. whyyyyyyyyyy?????? why can’t everything just happen right, as if by magic, the first time. see that piece of blue painters tape? that’s supposed to be the location of the fourth light. magic, i want magic!
But overall, we are slowly but surely getting there. As of this morning, this is what our kitchen ceiling looks like:
we have started to move into the kitchen, and its taking us a minute (more like days and days).… Read the rest
In every renovation, inevitably, mistakes happen. The worst though, is when you are close to done. Or when something has been there for weeks – months maybe – and you “just” notice it. Annnd it happened to us. We have started to use the kitchen just a bit– the new dishwasher was hooked up on Friday for us (works great!) So on Sunday I thought – hey why don’t I unload the dishwasher straight into our kitchen cabinets.… Read the rest
Slowly but surely we are making our way to completion. We lost one day of work (Tuesday) this week due to hurricane Sandy, mainly because driving conditions were terrible. Not much to show in terms of pictures – some electrical outlets, some moldings here and there. A bathroom door – hey cool!
Fluorescent lights (3′ and 2′ long) were installed in the recessed opening behind the bench. The plan is to place plexiglass over these in order to diffuse the light.… Read the rest
Woot – there it is. 100 days. Mind you that’s working days, not counting weekends, a week-long break sometime in July or a break that we have between the end of phase I and start of phase II of this monster. renovation project. This weekend will mark exactly 6 months since we demolished the kitchen and began our camping adventure. I am ready to be done with that.I can’t say that I ever want to do it again, but I think counting the stress, dust, etc, we took it all in stride (hey, we are still married!)… Read the rest
More brass! Yes!! The bench is looking spiffy these days. We added a foot rail at the bottom for comfort purposes, since the bench is made taller than normal to accommodate the height of the island. And inside the bench the division/support beams are all done, so its ready for sitting (good thing too since we have friends in town this weekend!)
The open shelving unit next to the bench got the wallpaper treatment.… Read the rest
We’ve got water in the kitchen, yo. That makes me very, very, VERY happy.
Neat. Actually, the majority of my happiness comes from the fact that the faucet works perfectly well. We picked it up at the same time when we got our ceiling tin tiles from the Brass Knob Warehouse going-out-of-business sale two years ago. (That place was such a gem, none of the other vintage house parts dealers ever quite have the selection of the artifacts that they did.)… Read the rest